Canine Country
Norwood, Oregon
(6)
Norwood, Oregon
(6)
6 customer reviews
Diane Wiser
I’m sitting here looking at my calm, submissive, affectionate, 23 month old Rottweiler, Ivy. She is a joy now but this wasn’t how I felt about her 19 months ago, before my husband and I took her to Shawn at Canine Country. She is our 4th Rottweiler and by far the most challenging.She was a confident and fearless 10 wk old puppy when we got her from the breeder. She quickly showed signs of aggression, biting us when we tried to take something away from her or make her do ANYTHING she didn’t want to do. I knew I was in over my head with this one. None of my training methods used on my other dogs were remotely effective and she was getting worse by the week. Biting our granddaughter on the thigh when she tried to take a sock out of her mouth was the last straw. As I was picking up the phone to let her breeder know we were sending her back, my husband suggested we take her to Shawn who was highly recommended by our neighbor.My first conversation with Shawn was over the phone. I could sense his passion and conviction for his tried and true philosophy. He spent 20 minutes pouring as much information about this philosophy in my ear like a fire hose. Everything he said made sense as his methods come from the perspective of how dogs learn in the pack. Our brains needed rewiring and I knew he would be a good teacher and coach for us.When we showed up to his beautiful and well maintained facility for our first training he greeted us warmly and sat a while on the tailgate of our SUV while getting to know us and mainly our puppy. Training began with her the moment he took her by the leash. She immediately responded well to his Alphaness.It really took less time to train her than it did us. We needed the most work. When we did things Shawn’s way, establishing our rules and consistently, firmly following through, our relationship with Ivy improved immensely. When we got lazy and fell back into our old ways of dealing with her, we lost her respect for us as leader. Shawn is strong for us because he knows how much we stand to lose and how serious the consequences can be to live with an aggressive, disrespectful dog. He is passionate about helping humans and canines live in harmony together.We gave up on taking our dogs to dog parks to play after a couple of past bad experiences with aggressive dogs. So we are so glad we can safely board Ivy twice a week for the day knowing that Shawn only allows dogs trained by him in the fenced property to roam freely together. They are monitored closely and trained not to bite or growl during play and NO aggressive behavior is tolerated. Ivy loves it and the regular socialization and training has helped her behave well with family and friends dogs who come to our home. As a teacher, I have adopted his philosophy of balancing firmness and authority with love and speaking belief into my students. I have gained more respect than ever from even my most challenging students and there is a great spirit of joy in the classroom as my students are clear about expectations and consequences.None of our previous Rottweilers were as well behaved at such a young age. Ivy is confident and happy. So are we. We highly recommend Shawn to anyone. More...
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Kathleen
A well maintained acreage, that offers excellent training and boarding for dogs. The dogs are allowed to roam as a friendly pack in a open park like setting.
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Julie Johnson
My dog loves coming here! She is always so happy and tired when she gets home. It’s a great way for her to socialize with other dogs. The training style works for our dog and our household, we are so thankful. More...
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Teresa Farrell
Best place ever for your dog!
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Mark Anderson
Sean is an excellent trainer. Our dog is very mindful after his program. And this is a great place to board your dogs.
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Linda B.
I highly recommend Canine Country for both training and boarding. I adopted a dog with a lot of emotional baggage (abused, abandoned 3 times, attacked at least twice-2 Rottweilers and a Pitbull). She had an extreme fear of being abandoned and became disoriented when I would leave her. She also would pull me on walks and lunge and snap at other dogs. This made our daily walks unpleasant and I could never keep her with other dogs. I had taken her to traditional training classes as well as training specifically for reactive dogs when she was younger with minimal and short lived results. At 6 years old, fully mature and set in her ways, I decided to take a new approach and went to Canine Country. They do not use the typical treat based training philosophy at all. The best way that I can describe their technique is that you must establish yourself as a strong pack leader so that they don’t feel the need (and stress associated) with dominant behavior (tugging, barking, lunging in my case). If you have ever read or watched The Dog Whisperer-Caesar Milan, I would say that their approach is fairly close but a bit more dominant. The key that they teach you is to be a consistent leader. No treats or bribes are required. My dog is so much calmer now as I think that she is not worried about trying to lead. I was shocked to find her communing peacefully with other dogs in an open environment after boarding her there for 3 days. I have had her back for about a month now and she continues to improve. This is not the place for you if you think that you can drop your dog off to be fixed, take them back home and live happily ever after. They can train your dog to be perfectly behaved but if you don’t establish yourself as a pack leader by consistently following the techniques at home, they will not respect your leadership and could revert back to their dominant behavior. Barking, jumping, lunging, pulling, and worse are all a symptom of them not respecting your leadership. If you are willing to embrace this technique and consistently follow it at home, you will have a much happier, well-adjusted and behaved dog. They gave me homework when I took her back and the owner has even checked in with me to follow up on my progress, offered tips for challenges and got on me to keep me accountable for the things that I had not followed. The training program is good for life so I can expect continuing support if things start to slip or any new issues arise which is nice. More...
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